Lydia Akers

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Scott Plunkett

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Dr. Plunkett has a long history in developing, supervising, and evaluating programs targeting at-risk youth and their parents, especially those from minority populations and low socioeconomic statuses. A few of the programs he has evaluated include (1) a comprehensive effective parenting campaign that served over 20,000 parents a year (mostly Latino) in Los Angeles county; (2) a conflict resolution and mediation program targeting minority youth; (3) a comprehensive sexuality education program for individuals with developmental disabilities in Oklahoma; (4) a book flood program to help students in low-income schools in the greater Los Angeles area; and (5) the Career Opportunities in Research program that helps underrepresented students who want to pursue a doctorate in mental health research. Besides his interest in program evaluation, Dr. Plunkett has a strong interest in identifying community, family, peer, and school influences on the mental health of minority youth: Adolescent Resiliency in Multi-Cultural Communities (www.csun.edu/plunk/armcc). The program evaluation and research project have resulted in over 100 hundred peer-reviewed conference presentations and over 20 peer-reviewed journal articles.